Chief Conductor, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Principal Conductor, BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Artist in Association, Tapiola Sinfonietta
Raised in Los Angeles, conductor Ryan Bancroft regularly appears with the world’s leading orchestras. Since September 2021 Bancroft has been Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Following his first visit to work with the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland Bancroft was invited to become their Artist in Association from the 21/22 season onwards. In 2021, Bancroft was announced as Chief Conductor Designate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and took up the Chief Conductor position in September 2023.
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After opening his tenure as Chief Conductor in Stockholm with the orchestra’s first performance of Sven-David Sandström’s The High Mass in 2023, Bancroft’s second season includes performances of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies alongside world premieres by Chrichan Larson and Zacharias Wolfe, whilst working with renowned soloists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Maxim Vengerov and VÃkingur Ólafsson.
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Bancroft returned to Los Angeles to make his debut at the Hollywood Bowl Festival in August 2023, and in the 24/25 season he appears with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Hollywood again as well as in the Walt Disney Hall in subscription series. He also makes his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, after making his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Festival in 2023. The 2023/24 season saw Bancroft make his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and return to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, following performances in previous seasons with the Minnesota, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. He will also appear at the Aspen Festival and the Colorado Music Festival.
In Europe Bancroft will continue his relationship with orchestras such as thePhilharmonia, who he appears with each season and recently on tour to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and make debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the WDR Symphonieorchester in Cologne. Last season saw Bancroft return to the London Philharmonic, and make debuts with the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Castilla y Lyon. In 2022 he made his debut at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo with the New Japan Philharmonic and Midori.
Since his success at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2018, where he won both First Prize and Audience Prize, Bancroft has conducted a number of other leading European orchestras including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, City of Birmingham Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Rai Torino and the Ensemble Intercontemporain.
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Bancroft has a passion for contemporary music and has performed with Amsterdam’s acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble, assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of his Sur Incises in Los Angeles, premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney, Anne LeBaron, and has worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.
Bancroft studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, alongside additional studies in harp, flute, cello, and Ghanaian music and dance. He then went on to receive an MMus in orchestral conducting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While studying in Scotland he played trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on many occasions. He continued his conducting studies in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the prestigious Nationale Master Orkestdirectie run jointly by the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. As a student, his main mentors were Edward Carroll, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen.
